SOUTH AFRICA FOUND US!!!! or we found it…we are found together

Just a quick backtrack to trace where we have been thus far. After leaving our cozy apartment on Tuesday (almost a week ago), we ventured across the States to Seattle area to say our goodbyes and spend a few days with Will’s parental units. After much hassle and many miscommunications and an overnighted envelope or two we received our passports with visas included 2 hours before we left for the airport to leave the country! Yikes!

From there we went to our boarding gate (which took about 5 seconds, it was craziness!) and found out that we were only allowed one carry on and we had two. Later we found out that wasn’t entirely true, but at that point we thought we had better follow any rules laid out for us so that we could just leave the country as easily as possible at that point. We boarded the plane and set off on our great adventure. 14.5 hours later we landed…..200 miles from Dubai. There was a sandstorm/thunderstorms in Dubai and apparently sand isn’t good for plane turbines…who knew (other than everybody always)? We got all refueled at that airport and zipped on over to Dubai, which took about another hour and a half. So, about 16 hours after we left SeaTac, we arrived in the Dubai airport completely confused and disoriented. We had flown through an entire night, and entire day, and it was now the beginning of a very long and sleepless night.

I’m sure the Dubai airport is wonderful during the daytime, or even during the nighttime if you have had any sort of sleep, because it is awake 24 hours a day. However, we just wanted to find some sleepies or get rid of them. And it’s hard to find a place there that is comfortable enough to sleep in. There are sort of reclinery chairs that are made out of plastic, but don’t really recline….they are hard to explain, but not very comfortable. We eventually found a corner to crash in for a couple of hours. We probably didn’t actually sleep at all, but laying down was nice anyway.

After doing 2 crossword puzzles, multiple games of cribbage and walking around the airport approximately 9 times and playing solitare and laughing at absolutely nothing because we were so slaphappy, we got to our boarding gate at around 9:20 am and were directed into a holding area down an escalator, where we waited for about 20 minutes. Then Will and I boarded a bus and got a full tour of the Dubai airport which took about 20 minutes. We climbed our way into the plane that would take us to our final destination. From there it was smooth sailing. We played games. We watched movies on our own personal screens. We almost napped a few times. And at 6pm, we arrived in our new home, Durban, South Africa.

It’s beautiful here.

The people are great. The family we are temporarily staying with is great. Our bed is GREAT (although I think we could have slept on a piece of plywood that first night and been happy). We are happy here and looking forward to a wonderful 8 months in South Africa.

It is now time for showers and to face the new day (we get cellphone SIM cards today!).